Posted on 11/08/2018 10:42:14 AM PST by MosesKnows
Young college educated chatter in a political chat room I visit insists that America is a Democracy.
He is adamant in his position and no manner of documentation will persuade him that America is a Republic.
The fact that the founders published their disdain for Democracies meant nothing to him.
The fact that the word democracy never once appears in the Declaration of Independence was not persuasive.
The fact that the word democracy never once appears in the Constitution didnt carry any weight.
The fact that none of the Constitutions of the fifty states contain the word democracy wasnt acknowledged.
Article 4, Section 4,
The United States shall guarantee to every State in this Union a Republican Form of Government, and shall protect each of them against Invasion; and on Application of the Legislature, or of the Executive (when the Legislature cannot be convened), against domestic Violence.
This discussion has gone on over several months and just the other day it dawned on me, a well duh moment if you will.
It is the differences in our educations. I was educated to the founders vision for America. The young chatter was educated to the Progressive vision for America.
That's your old buddy Ben Franklin.
This can be tricky when making a point to your daughter but it is incorrect or perhaps incomplete. Under America's Constitution the people are sovereign.
What always made this confusing to me is that the people don't make the laws but they are sovereign because they elect those who do make laws.
I wish I had someone from Hillsdale College to offer a better explanation.
We do have a reprehensive democracy but that is not what makes us a Republic. America's form of government is officially a constitutional federal republic.
Calling America a "constitutional federal Republic with democratically elected representatives" satisfies some liberals.
We are a Republic, which means the majority of the people cannot create or change the law but they can elect a majority that can change and create the law.
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